Head Coach Quentin Hillsman's Press Conference Transcript
Syracuse vs. Northeastern
December 9, 2007
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening statement:
“Obviously I’m very happy, 7-1 is just a great start to our season. It’s a great time to have a little break and we’re looking forward to the time off, but more than anything I’m just so proud of my kids. They just keep executing and keep executing and I think if we keep doing that and we keep scoring the basketball and if we can keep seven, eight, nine players in double figure minutes we’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games. We just want to come out every night and compete and play hard and win as many games as we can win. We’re going to keep playing as many players as we can. I think everyone that played today had a positive impact and a positive influence on this game.”
On maintaining a consistent level of play:
“They did stay at that level. I think that last night I killed myself because I got up at 3 o’clock in the morning, got out of bed and watched some more tape and I was just worried. You can’t get comfortable. I think that people get in trouble when they get comfortable. We didn’t rest on our laurels we got right back in there and we did it. We had a great practice, we had a great shoot around and the next thing I did was get myself out of bed to watch some more tape because I was nervous. We just wanted to play hard and compete and be aggressive. I just love our work ethic and our intensity.”
On zone defense:
“That’s right, I told Coach Boeheim I said, ‘Coach if we lose one I’m blaming it on you,’ because I was watching them against Virginia just stay in the zone, but I also told him, ‘if we win I would give him the credit,’ so Coach Boeheim here is your shout out. We just got strong in the zone and we just stayed in it and we wanted to make sure we got out to the shooters and I thought for the most part we did a good job. Late in the game we got people in different positions and gave up a couple late but 4-of-26 from behind the arc, I guess the zone was working.”
On continuing in zone defense:
“I’m going to do whatever we have to do to win. Whether it’s man or zone and right now it’s the zone and we’re going to ride it out as long as we can, because we just want to win and we just want to stop people. We don’t have a preference how we play. We just like to win so we’re just going to keep doing whatever we have to do to win.”
On Syracuse’s size advantage over Northeastern:
“Absolutely, when we saw they were a little undersized, we didn’t realize what a big size advantage we had until we really stepped on the floor. I told them we really have to pound that ball inside and that’s what we did I think. Then we got open 3-point shots. We were 7-for-13, and I think us going inside out allowed us to get wide open threes. We just pounded the ball inside and I thought that our inside players played really well. Vaida (Sipaviciute) had 11, Vionca (Murray) had 11 and Fantasia (Goodwin) had 12. I mean you talk about the people inside, we were very dominant inside. We had 40 points in the paint that’s a great number to have.”
On junior forward Chandrea Jones:
“Chandrea is a very talented player and I never worry about her getting out of the gate. If she stays aggressive and she can shoot the ball she is going to score and she is going to score in bunches so I never worry about Chandrea scoring. She is just a remarkable kid. She is a remarkable athlete and she is one of the most talented basketball players at that position that I have seen in a while because she can put the ball on the floor and she can shoot it. In recruiting her I just knew and I talked about it over and over again to our coaching staff and to the media what an explosive player she was going to be on the offensive end. She is making a commitment to the defensive end also so I’m really proud of her.”
On whether Syracuse will receive votes in the National Polls:
“We just want to keep winning. If we don’t get a vote this week so what, we’re 7-1. That vote is not going to be the difference in us winning or losing against Princeton so our goal now is to get ready for Princeton. If we get votes great, if we don’t get votes great. We’re just going to keep working and keep playing because eventually when you keep winning games they have to vote for you. So we’re going to put them in a position where there isn’t any doubt and they have to vote for us. We’re just going to keep winning, keep winning games, keep playing tough and keep being aggressive and I think people will notice our program and that we’re going in the right direction.”
On building confidence for BIG EAST play:
“I just think that as you keep winning, winning is a habit. I think that the more you win, the more you learn how to win, and the easier it is to win. I hope we can go into the BIG EAST Conference ready to play. It’s a tough conference, it’s the best conference in the country so we’re just happy that we can hold up our end of the bargain and represent our conference and play really well in the non-league. Not only does it help us, it helps our conference RPI so we just want to do our part and our part is to continue to win non-league basketball games.”
On junior forward Chandrea Jones
“She’s the most talented, so when you’re the most talented you don’t have to be the tallest and you don’t have to be the fastest, you don’t have to be the quickest. She’s just the most talented, she is fun to watch and she’s athletic. She’s a star, the kid can play, she just came from one level to another level to another level and she’s tearing it up and I just hope that she just continues to remain aggressive. I have great confidence in her and she is going to score, she’s a great player.”
